Dakota History in the Faribault Region

Chief Hushasha_FtSnelling_1862.jpg

Chief Hushasha of the Wahpekute Dakota in front of his tipi while imprisoned at Fort Snelling, Minnesota in 1862, after the Great Sioux Uprising of 1862 (Dakota War).

The Wahpekute Dakota were the original occupants of the region around Faribault, along with some of their Mdewakanton Dakota relatives.1  Minnesota itself comes from the Dakota word for Mni Sota, the waters that reflects the sky.  The main Wahpekute village was situated along the northwest shore of Medatepetonka, "Lake of the Big Village,"  now known as Cannon Lake.

The Wahpekute lived in a peaceable alliance with the other six peoples that make up the the Oceti Sakowin, the Lakota/Dakota Sioux, but competition for lands and resources stepped up with westward migration by Ojibwe from the shores of Lake Superior, bearing French firearms and exacerbated by the United States. With time, many of the Lakota/Dakota moved into what is now South Dakota and Nebraska, while the remaining communities settled in southern Minnesota, northern Iowa and eastern Wisconsin.  After the Dakota-U.S. War of 1862, the vast majority of Dakota were forcibly exiled outside Minnesota, though always maintaining connection to their homelands.  Today, the Prairie Island Indian Community near the mouth of the Cannon in Red Wing, is the nearest Dakota nation. 

  1. Faribault Heritage Preservation Commission, “Timeline,” accessed 20 April, 2013, http://www.faribault.org/history/Timeline.htm. ↩

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  8. Access Genealogy, “Wahpekute Indian Tribe History,” accessed 20 April, 2013, http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/tribes/siouan/wahpekutehist.htm. ↩

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This tall, white sandstone rock formation located in what is today known as Castle Rock, was the namesake for the present day Cannon River, which the Wahpekute named Iyan Bosndata ("The Standing Rock River”) .

The Wahpekute split into two groups, with one settling in northern Iowa near Spirit Lake, and the other, along the Upper Cannon Valley. The latter were the first recorded residents of the Rice County area (then unnamed). They settled first in villages along the Cannon River, which they named Inyan Bosndata ("The Standing Rock River”) after a tall, white sandstone rock formation located in what is today known as Castle Rock, Dakota County, Minnesota.10 Later, at Alexander Faribault’s persuasion, they moved into the existing site of Faribault. There were about 600 Wahpekute in the area by the early 1850s.

Chief Hushasha (Red Legs) of the Wahpekute Dakota was imprisoned in the Dakota internment camp at Fort Snelling, Minnesota after the U.S. Dakota War of 1862 . Hushasha converted to Christianity and is understood to have been baptized by the Rev. Henry Benjamin Whipple, the first Episcopal bishop of Minnesota who founded the Cathedral of Our Merciful Savior in Faribault. Many of Hushasha's descendants have identified themselves as Episcopalians.11

  1. Shannon Sleeth, “Wahpekute Dakota Sioux, Rice County Minnesota,” last modified October 2009, http://www.oocities.org/heartland/estates/5418/indian.html. ↩

  2. Fox, Donald Whipple. "Chief Hushasha in Front of His Tipi While Imprisoned at Fort Snelling (Minnesota) in 1862." Beliefnet Community. February 9, 2009. http://community.beliefnet.com/hushasha40. ↩

  3. F. W. Frink, A Short History of Faribault, (Faribault: Press of the Faribault Republican, 1902)↩

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Minnesota Historical Society plaque outside the Cathedral of Our Merciful Savior that recognizes the partnership of Rev. Henry Benjamin Whipple with Native Minnesotans and his efforts to secure their rights through "the reform of U.S. Indian policies and an active Indian mission program.

As word spread that 303 Dakota would be executed in retaliation for the War of 1862, Bishop Whipple sought to persuade President Lincoln to prevent the executions. Lincoln commuted the death sentences for all but thirty-eight. Still, the execution of the 38 at Mankato in December 1862 -- the largest mass execution in U.S. history -- and the use of body parts of the executed for research, remain a powerful memory of injustice.